Little Known American History Facts!

"We hold these truths to be self evident..." - Thomas Jefferson

The Liberty Bell was not made in the United States and it was not rung on the first 4th of July. It was cast in London in 1752, cracked in 1835 and was not named the Liberty Bell until the 1830's in memory of slaves seeking their freedom. It rang for the first time on July 8, 1776 to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

The first tax collected for public education was in New England in 1636 which established Harvard University to train ministers. Later the tax was expanded under "The Old Deluder Satan Act", so called because the purpose was to teach children how to read the Bible, thus deluding Satan. It mandated that every town with over 50 people in it must have a teacher.

The Battle of Bunker Hill never took place. The colonials were supposed to dig in on Bunker Hill, but for some reason chose Breeds Hill instead, a smaller hill about 2000 feet away. Although the British succeeded in taking the hill, they lost over 1000 men doing it. The colonials lost about 400.

By 1779, as many as one in seven Americans in Washington's army were black. At first Washington was hesitant about enlisting blacks. But when he heard they had fought well at Bunker Hill, he changed his mind. The all-black First Rhode Island Regiment -- composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves who were promised freedom if they served until the end of the war -- distinguished itself in the Battle of Newport. Later, they were all but wiped out in a British attack.

The Epitaph of Benjamin Franklin's: The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, (Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding), Lies here, food for worms; But the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the author--(written by himself). (Unlike Jefferson, who also wrote his own epitaph, Franklins was not used. Only his name was displayed.)

Some controversy exists on whether Betsy Ross really sewed the first American Flag. But her commitment to the cause of American Independence is not in dobut. She manufactured munitions in the basement of her home.

History's first submarine attack took place in New York Harbor in 1776! The Connecticut inventor David Bushnell called his submarine the Turtle because it resembled two large tortoise shells of equal size joined together. On September 6, 1776, the Turtle targeted the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet. The submarine was supposed to secure a cask of gunpowder to the hull of the Eagle and sneak away before it exploded. Unfortunately, the Turtle got entangled with the Eagle's rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the gunpowder could be planted.

General Rahl was so immersed in a chess game, that he ignored a note handed to him. The message from a spy warned that George Washington's army was about to cross the Deleware River. The note was found later stuffed in his pocket after he was mortally wounded.

By 1779, there were more Americans fighting with the British than with Washington! There were no less than 21 regiments (estimated to total 6,500 to 8,000 men) of loyalists in the British army. Washington reported a field army of 3,468. About a third of Americans opposed the Revolution.

The Boston tea party did not happen because the British raised the price of tea, but because they lowered it. Such a huge black market existed, that a cheaper British tea threatened to make the the smuggling of tea unprofitable. Angered, not only by the loss of the tea trade but also by the monopolistic practice of the British East India Trade Co., colonial traders joined the radicals agitating for independence.

Benjamin Franklin would of felt honored when citizens in the Western part of North Carolina petitioned congress to create a new state called "Frankland". However the state of North Carolina didn't feel quite so inclined to the idea of dividing their state and quickly moved to block congress from granting the petiition. Later it used militia to arrest Frankland's Governor John Sevier and try him for treason.

In the 1780's, part of Wrentham, Massachusetts split off from Wrentham. As was common, the church was the cultural, social, religious and governmental center of the new town. But they had no bell in the church. There was no way to summon the local citizens for services, or for emergencies such as fire. So, they came up with a clever plan. They named their new town "Franklin", and wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin asking him to donate a bell. However, Dr. Franklin was not so impressed. "Sense being preferable to sound," Dr. Franklin sent the good citizens a crate of books instead, and suggested they start a library. They did. It's still operating. It is the oldest public library in the United States.